It is not promising at the beginning. You put alcohol ink on the surface and in a second it is sitting there, too dark, too concentrated, rather awkward. Then it starts to spread and it somehow comes out worse. There is blooding and dissolving of colors, and blurring of edges, and you are left to stare at what appears to be a mistake. Click for more hints about this page!

It is the puddle that most people distrust more as it is messy.

I didn’t either. I had a desire to correct it at once. Put in more liquor, shake it up, try to squeeze it into something well-known. It was normally aggravated by this.

When one learns to stop, the turning point has come.

You give that puddle a few moments, and the ink begins to separate itself. Pigments change a little, light colors appear, and the edges start creating these organic lines, which are soft. It is mild and yet it is the point of the change.

You must not cut it short or you miss that stage.

When the ink has settled a little, not quite dry, but not quite wet, then it is that some little touch will upset the whole. A single drop of alcohol. A gentle tilt. A single puffing of the air.

The puddle then begins to move deliberately.

It stretches itself and creates those sweeps that one would recognize with the alcohol ink painting. The contrasting colors are enhanced. What seemed to be flat a minute ago is now starting to be three-dimensional.

It is a strange turnabout to see.

You also have to choose whether you want to continue or not. That is easier said than done. It starts looking good and the urge is to do it better.

Here is where a majority of the paintings fall apart.

Any further change poses the risk of smattering those clean edges once more into the mud. A single or two purposeful movements frequently are the best and not continual readjustment.

I have killed more through overworking than underworking.

The other assistance is to start with less amount of colors. A puddle that is chaotic and is made of three colors behaves in a different manner than a puddle that is chaotic and is made of six. The reduced numbers of colors imply a cleaner flow of the ink.

It also facilitates the transformation.

It is satisfying to observe such change in practice. You will not get the impression of producing the image pixel by pixel. It is as though you were discovering it.

It might seem to be dramatical, but it is so.

It is not the puddle that is the problem, but the start. The whole process is not so disorganized when you no longer struggle that stage and start working with it.

And that is when the results are what usually start surprising you.